The LA Zine Fest had organized a panel discussion with LA punk pioneer Alice Bag (The Bags, Castration Squad, The Boneheads, Alarma, Cambridge Apostles, Swing Set, Cholita…), Riot Grrrl’s Allison Wolfe (Bratmobile, Partyline, Cool Moms), and filmmaker, Arts Editor for LA Record Drew Denny (also in Bon Bon) at the Moth theater on Sunday night. It was a dream team panel as they had advertised it, since these women had been involved in over 10 bands collectively, and in too many projects to list them here, with activities going from independent film makers, to LadyFest organizers, educators, writers, bloggers, activists, and of course zinemakers.
The Zine fest was a total success, and I hadn’t expected such a line to get in the Ukrainian Cultural center before 2 pm. Last year, Henry Rollins was part of the panel conversing with V. Vale of Re/Search Publications, and the discussion had been quite interesting. This year, it was total girl power, and the four women started their discussion with a riotous performance, emerging from the back of the theater wearing Pussy-Riot-style masks and performing 'Balaclavas', a song in homage to the Russian punk band, while screaming ’Set them free!’ Answering to a question about the future of punk toward the end of the discussion, Alice Bag said how much she was inspired by these Pussy Riot girls, ‘they are more punk than 90 % of what I see on stage, they are political, they challenge authority, they are accessible to everyone! They were the perfect example of how punk can change society!'
Ironically, Alice Bag, who describes herself as an agitator and master trouble-maker, modestly said she was inspired by Pussy Riot whereas it is obvious these Russian women were inspired by what started in the US some decades ago, the punk Riot Grrrl movement… And especially, Alice Bag was already performing with a bag over her head in the mid 70s! She explained that this anonymity was very liberating, ‘It was so empowering to have this outlet’, she said, adding that, as a young and poor Chicana, she wasn’t comfortable to express herself in English. She has since published a book in English, ‘Violence Girl’ that she wrote the 'punk-rock way', entry after entry as a blogger. At the time, she preferred to connect with people the face hidden behind a bag to escape the stereotypes. As she got older, she definitively embraced her identity as a woman, a Chicana who grew up in East LA. But she insisted they were just having fun at the time, they were not thinking it would make ripples and expand the way the movement did.
Allison Wolfe remembered the pre-internet times, when so much communication was happening without phone and today’s technology, ‘There was more a sense of community than now!’ she added, although she looked amazed of the success of the LA fest, ‘this is Incredible DIY! So much of this is gone from my life, I miss the 90s!’ She explained how the zine culture was important as the ‘scary’ media weren’t speaking to them. By scary she meant she wasn’t happy about the way media were distorting and watering everything down. ‘It [the zines] was an accessible outlet, and I did a zine before starting a band’. They agreed that the same sense of community can now be achieved with social media, but that it isn’t the exact same feeling.
The zines actually started the feminist movement Riot Grrrl. Allison Wolfe explained that she was raised by a tough lesbian-hippie mother receiving constant death treats from anti abortion and homophobic people, and that she thought things couldn’t possibly get worst when she got on stage. However, her friend Kathleen Hannah of Bikini Kill took most of the aggression, ‘I wasn’t tough! I wrote songs about who I could be’… 'I punched a guy once but he didn’t even flinch!' Alice explained she got involved in fights with guys too, ‘he claimed that I was an atheist, I punched him! That’s why my book is called ‘Violence girl!’ These days, Alice Bag is also an archivist to document women involvement in punk rock, as she thinks that women were equally represented in the early days whereas the books focus more on the guy bands.
Alice may have said she was inspired by Pussy Riot, but at the end, this discussion was an inspiration for women who aren’t afraid of the word feminist, ‘The word needs a PR campaign’ said Drew Denny, ‘Spell it with ph!’ added Alice. ‘I don’t get it when people are not upset, when people think they don’t need to fight anymore! There is not a time when fighting isn’t necessary! I don’t understand people who are not political,… your silence is political!’ added Denny. There is no doubt that the true nature of the punk message isn’t lost. 